Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 566 A Shocking Start, Starting Anew!
Vargas Llosa's sudden invitation to Liu Yimin came as a great surprise to him. Liu Yimin is a member of the Chinese PEN Center, which is also a member of PEN International.

“Professor Liu is a young writer, and the International PEN organization needs young talent like him,” Vargas Llosa said with a smile.

He meant not only that Liu Yimin become a member, but also that he could take on some of the daily affairs of PEN International.

Cao Yu glanced at Liu Yimin, signaling him to agree.

Liu Yimin said with a smile, "Thank you for the invitation, President Vargas Llosa. If there is anything I can do to help PEN International, I will do my best."

Vargas Llosa is currently the president of PEN International.

Upon hearing Liu Yimin's words, Vargas Llosa smiled and nodded, praising Liu Yimin a few more times.

When the meeting ended, the president of the Central University of Venezuela walked over to the Chinese delegation and handed Liu Yimin a letter.

[Respected Professor Yimin, Liu:]
In recognition of your contributions to world and Chinese literature, we have decided to award you an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts of the Central University of Venezuela.

Liu Yimin glanced at the date on it. The letter had been written long ago, but it was only handed to him now.

“Professor Liu, we are deeply impressed by your talent,” the president of the Central University of Venezuela said with a smile.

Qian Zhongshu joked, "Yimin, I think you'll get more doctoral degrees than Hu Shih in the future!"

"Professor Qian." Liu Yimin smiled helplessly.

Liu Yimin gladly accepted the invitation from the Central University of Venezuela to award him an honorary doctorate.

Marquez walked over and said, "Liu, I hope that the future Central University of Venezuela will be proud of you."

“Professor, I am confident that you will be able to forge a deep friendship with our University of Venezuela,” the president of the Central University of Venezuela said happily. “We plan to confer an honorary doctorate upon you tomorrow morning.”

After the meeting, the group left the Central University of Venezuela. Back at the hotel, Cao Yu told the other members to go back to their rooms, leaving Qian Zhongshu and Liu Yimin behind.

"Let's have a meeting. The first day of exchanges is over. Overall, it was quite pleasant. Yimin, what do you think?" Cao Yu looked at Liu Yimin.

Liu Yimin said with a smile, "I agree with your opinion."

"Yimin, what did you mean by what you said today?" Qian Zhongshu asked, arms crossed.

"What do you mean?" Liu Yimin asked, puzzled.

"Don't play dumb with us about the evaluation system of Third World literature."

"Well, this just came to mind on a whim. As far as the current literary evaluation system is concerned, we can't escape Western influence. But the West has its own unique standards, even its own stance, for evaluating literature. Third World literature has its own..."

Liu Yimin was interrupted by a knock on the door before he could finish speaking. When he opened the door, he found that Marquez was standing there at some point.

"Mr. Márquez? What brings you here?" Qian Zhongshu asked in confusion. As far as they knew, the hotel where Márquez was staying was about seven kilometers away from here.

Marquez glanced at Liu Yimin, then turned to Qian Zhongshu and said, "I think communication shouldn't be on stage, but rather in private. I'll take you to see the sunset in Venezuela."

After finishing his sentence, Márquez added, "I think the four of us will definitely get to know each other better under the Venezuelan sunset."

Márquez's meaning was clear: the four of us are enough; don't bring everyone else along.

So the three of them informed the others that they were free to go out, and then followed Márquez out of the hotel.

Instead of taking them in a car, Márquez boarded a bus: "On the bus, you can see the real situation in Venezuela, where the lives of the Venezuelan people are getting worse and worse under the impact of oil prices."

The three people kept observing the bus. Everyone on the bus looked tense, some were indifferent, and others were complaining about the price of vegetables and food rising again.

Upon hearing the passengers' complaints, the bus driver couldn't help but mutter a few curses under his breath, telling them that their wages were simply not enough to make ends meet.

Liu Yimin stared intently at the bus driver's face, and after a while asked softly, "Sir, how many hours do you work each day?"

"Me? Who are you?"

"I am from China."

"Oh? A Chinese person?" The bus driver looked at Liu Yimin with interest for a few moments, muttered something to himself, and then looked up and said, "A Chinese writer?"

"you know?"

"This is today's newspaper, sir. What kind of country is China?"

"China? My hometown is certainly a very beautiful country."

"Do you have money?"

"We don't have any oil."

The bus driver yelled, "What's the use of oil? Oil is less useful than water."

The plunge in oil prices has made Venezuelans instinctively irritable at the mere mention of oil, as they believe that all their misfortunes are caused by the drop in oil prices.

"Even if oil prices don't plummet, your government's debt is so high that oil profits are only enough to cover interest payments."

"Yes, these officials don't care about anything."

"What's your name?"

“Nicolas Maduro Moros, a poor bus driver,” Maduro said with a self-deprecating laugh.

Liu Yimin laughed and said, "There's a Chinese saying: 'Are kings and nobles born with a special destiny?' Today I'm a bus driver, but I might not be in the future."

Maduro shook his head, feeling that this Chinese man simply couldn't understand them: "Hmph, all our oil profits have been taken by the Americans; they've plundered our resources."

"Yes, it's the United States."

Maduro glanced at Liu Yimin: "You know that too?" "Of course I know. Everyone in the world knows that a large part of the reason we are so unfortunate is because of the United States."

"I'm sure you'll be a great writer!"

Maduro was originally a bus driver, but he met left-wing leader Chavez by chance. After Chavez was arrested in a coup, Maduro was inspired by Chavez's ideas and spirit and followed him from then on.

Even after Chavez became president, he remained his most loyal follower. Until Chavez's death and Maduro's rise to power, Maduro implemented anti-American policies even more rigorously than Chavez.

Maduro asked Liu Yimin to analyze why oil prices had plummeted.

"If production increases, it's like in Caracas, where there are many fish on the coast, so the price of fish will be cheaper."

In the mid-1980s, OPEC countries pursued a production cut policy, but unfortunately, non-OPEC countries increased production to fill the market gap left by OPEC, preventing oil prices from rising.

OPEC got angry and decided to fight it out. So in 1985, OPEC began to increase production, and oil prices plummeted from over thirty dollars a barrel to just a few dollars a barrel at one point.

Of course, the drop in oil prices is a huge benefit for China, an oil-poor country.

After chatting for a while, Márquez led them off the bus.

Marquez asked curiously, "Liu, how come you can chat with a bus driver for so long?"

“Mr. Márquez, I’m used to it. We writers advocate doing research before writing. I’ve been to many places, and the most important thing about research is to get along with the local people so that you can get real information,” Liu Yimin said with great insight.

Marquez nodded: "Liu, I didn't expect you to be such a patient writer. For many young writers, they yearn for fame and often feel that the time to achieve fame is too long."

The group walked quietly along the Venezuelan beach, gazing at the Caribbean Sea, followed by two security personnel.

When Marquez mentioned Liu Yimin's speeches in various countries, he started criticizing the United States again.

“Every writer who sets foot on American soil is monitored by the CIA.”

“Americans have developed a habit of eavesdropping, and who knows, one day they might not only monitor celebrities, but they might want to monitor the whole world,” Liu Yimin chimed in.

Qian Zhongshu jokingly said to Cao Yu, "Jiabao, you might have been monitored when you went to the United States."

"Me? Listen! Listen! Let them hear whatever they want!" Cao Yu said nonchalantly.

After walking for a while, they came to a café, where Márquez invited them to try the Venezuelan-style coffee.

Venezuelans like to drink coffee made with milk and sugar. Qian Zhongshu and Cao Yu took a sip and said, "Venezuela is a beautiful country."

"South America is incredibly beautiful, with its vast grasslands of Argentina and rainforests of Brazil. But this beautiful land has bred massacres, dictatorships, and all sorts of crimes. I was born in Colombia, and while Venezuela already has a bad security situation, Colombia is even worse; the gangs there are more like the government," Márquez said with self-deprecation.

Cao Yu frankly mentioned that since China's reform and opening up, many public security problems have emerged in the country: "However, we are cracking down on crime severely, and we need to ensure the safety of the vast majority of ordinary people. We cannot show leniency towards crime. As for drugs, drugs are our pain, and we will resolutely not allow drugs to reappear."

"Security is a problem that exists all over the world, and it's not easy to solve it completely. As a Colombian, I haven't been back to Colombia since the mid-70s." Márquez's deep gaze looked towards the horizon where the sea and sky met.

The four people sat together, talking about their daily lives, their families, and themselves. Their simple and warm conversation was interspersed with joy and regret.

“I used to be destitute, and if it weren’t for my wife, I wouldn’t have been able to continue my writing. She supported the family by pawning things; she is a great woman.” Márquez’s eyes were filled with warmth.

When Qian Zhongshu talked about his wife Yang Jiang, his words were full of happiness and affection.

As night fell over the sea, Márquez shifted the topic to Liu Yimin's speech at the Central University of Venezuela that day.

“Liu, from the very first day you talked about the unity of Third World literature, I’ve been very curious about what you were trying to say,” Márquez asked.

Cao Yu and Qian Zhongshu smiled at Márquez and said, "To be honest, we were asking you the same question before you knocked on the door."

"Haha, then let Liu answer our questions!" Marquez picked up his coffee cup, his eyes fixed on Liu Yimin.

Liu Yimin took a sip of coffee: "This is a somewhat immature idea of ​​mine. I believe that in order to break through the Western-dominated literary evaluation system, we should not only develop Third World literature and challenge the dominant position of Western literary thought, but also have Third World literary organizations, and even develop literary awards for Third World literary works in the future."

"Start from scratch?" Qian Zhongshu's eyes lit up.

Liu Yimin nodded and said, "That's one way to put it. Western ideas are rapidly invading the world through various literary evaluation systems, magazines, movies, television, and media. Their goal is to make the whole world accept their value standards."

Furthermore, as many are aware, the Iowa International Training Camps are funded by the CIA. This reflects the West's desire to culturally, rather than simply economically and militarily, overwhelm the Third World.

Vargas Llosa's ideas prove that he had gradually accepted the Western value system.

The pace of cultural colonization by the West is accelerating; this is a new form of colonization. How should we resist? The answer is undoubtedly to unite our forces. Of course, this unity cannot be achieved by any one person or any one country.

Marquez couldn't help but say, "Liu, please continue!"

"If we can unite writers from Third World countries and build an organization similar to PEN International, then the power of Third World writers will increase. In addition, we should establish a literary evaluation system for Third World countries to prevent certain writers from deliberately pandering to the evaluation standards of the United States and the West in order to win awards."

For example, our literature prize could be used to encourage anti-colonial literature, realistic literature reflecting the economic development and social progress of Third World countries, and so on, thus establishing a Nobel Prize in Literature specifically for Third World nations.

Liu Yimin became more and more excited as he spoke. Of course, he knew that his idea was easy to come up with, but it would take a long time to implement.

Márquez is a big name, and by using that name, a group of people can be gathered, but relying solely on his fame is far from enough to accomplish this task.

“Good idea, young man, it’s a very good idea, but as you said, it’s too difficult to carry out.” Márquez’s expression was tense, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Cao Yu and Qian Zhongshu exchanged a glance, their eyes revealing surprise and shock.

"It's earth-shattering, truly earth-shattering. Of course, if it can really be realized, it would be an encouraging thing for Third World literature." Cao Yu's voice was seven parts excitement and three parts regret.

Liu Yimin said, "There is nothing in the world that cannot be accomplished. When PEN International was founded, it consisted of only a few people, but now it has become a world-renowned literary organization."

The International PEN was founded in 1921. It was first proposed by a British female writer, and after that, writers from all over Europe responded. Before World War II, it had already become famous all over the world.

P.S.: The next chapter will be posted later!

(End of this chapter)